Elevators carry passengers, cargo or both between different levels in a building, for example. There are different mechanisms for moving an elevator car within a hoistway. Traction-based elevator systems utilize a roping arrangement for suspending the elevator car and moving the car as desired. Most traction based systems include a counterweight.
Traditionally, traction based elevator systems included a machine room in which the elevator machine, drive and control components were located. For example, a separate structural room would be placed on top of a hoistway on a roof of a building. The machine room provides access to the motor, brake, drive and controller components for service and maintenance operations, for example.
A modern trend in elevator systems has been to eliminate the machine room and provide a machine roomless elevator system. Eliminating the machine room provides the advantage reducing construction cost otherwise associated with providing a separate machine room, for example. While there are advantages associated with eliminating the requirement for a machine room, certain challenges are introduced.
For example, strategic placement of the elevator components is required to provide an adequate machine support that also supports the loads of the elevator system. At the same time, the desire is to keep cost down and to minimize the complexity of the installation process. Another issue that is presented by machine roomless elevator systems is that a technician or mechanic may need to enter the hoistway for maintenance or service procedures. It is desirable to limit the amount of time that an individual needs to be within the hoistway for such procedures.
Various proposals have been made for supporting elevator system components within a hoistway for a machine roomless configuration. Examples are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,446,762, EP 1,266,859, WO 99/43596 and EP 1,329,411. Those skilled in the art are always striving to make improvements in areas such as simplifying installation procedures, reducing costs associated with elevator system components and installation and decreasing the burden on service personnel for performing maintenance and service procedures.